In this multi-part series, I’m going to address the biggest mistakes we make in voice over. I articulate these mistakes because I’ve made them, and I’ve seen others shoot themselves in the foot, not even realizing that they’re making mistakes they can so easily avoid.
Biggest Mistake #1: Not Practicing Aloud EVERY SINGLE DAY
If you are not practicing every single day, you are preparing to fail in voice over. A week without auditioning makes me rusty, so I can’t even imaging staying sharp if I’m not doing this work each and every day. My favorite way of practicing when first starting out is reading aloud. Read to your children, your nieces and nephews, your neighborhood kids…anyone who will listen. Seems elementary, but if you love language, storytelling, and entertaining people, there is no better way to do all three for a captive audience than reading to children. If you are lucky enough to be able to read books aloud to others everyday, you will hone your instrument and up your audition game exponentially.
If you cannot read books in front of a live studio audience, then please read every thing you can aloud whenever you get a moment. If professional pianists can practice their instrument six hours a day, if golfers can spend hours each week hitting balls before every going on the course to practice, and if dancers can do 10 hours of classes and rehearsals per day, surely you can find an hour to read aloud EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Lastly, If you have signed up for one of the online casting sites and are complaining that you are not getting any action on them, I challenge you to read EVERY SINGLE AUDITION that comes through your inbox. First, listen to your studio quality; is it up to snuff? Second, you will get better and better at auditioning, sheerly through repetition. Third, you will most likely book a job–congratulations! Now you can’t bitch any more that you’re not getting enough action in your career because you are making it happen!